3i8 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book V. 



pryde in a thinge whereof they may rather be ashamed, yet 

 in this manner of play I recommend to you, both the idle 

 man may have his pastyme, and the prowd man his pompe." 

 Sir John Harington further records that his grandfather, 

 William, Earl of Pembroke, lost ;^2000 in one night, " imita- 

 ting Augustus Caesar's play, though I will be sworen for him 

 he never read his life — still giving away all he won, and 

 paying away all hee lost." * 



Owing to the reputed influence obtained by the 

 Jesuits, through the Spanish ambassador, over James 

 I., a canny Scot named Ramsy, watchmaker to his 

 Majesty, issued clocks at a certain rate of odds to 

 whomsoever chose to gamble in timepieces ; they to 

 pay a minimum price for the timepiece, so staked on 

 a maximum alternative, " when King James should 

 be crowned in the pope's chaire." Ben Jonson ridicules 

 the romantic wagers which were then laid, by intro- 

 ducing Sir Peuntravolo, in " Every Man out of his 

 Humour," giving the odds upon the performance of 

 a journey to Constantinople, by himself, his cat, and 

 his dog. 



John Chamberlain (a notable "intelligencer" of 

 the period), writing from London, January 8, 1608, 

 to his friend and gossip, Dudley Carleton, says, inter 

 alia, that " On Twelfth Eve there was great golden 

 play at court. No gamester admitted that brought 

 not ^300 at least. Montgomery played the King's 

 money, and won him ^150, which he had for his 

 labour; the Lord Monteagle"*^ lost the queen ^400; 

 Sir Robert Carey, for the prince, ^300 ; the Earl 

 of Salisbury, ^300 ; the Lord Buckhurst ^500, 



* "Nugae Antique," edit. Lend., 1804, vol. i., p. 220. 



